Laguna Gloria has always been an important part of Austin. Once the magnificent
private villa of philanthropist Clara Driscoll. Now the building and it's
grounds have been restored to its former beauty.

The Austin Museum of Art (AMOA), which outgrew the villa as its home
years ago, has been on a roller coaster ride for nearly 20 years trying
to develop a permanent home. With talk of building a new museum downtown
to complement Laguna Gloria's needs for repair were also considered. Since
space was created for displays in a Congress Avenue Bank building, Laguna
Gloria has become the home of Austin's Art School and some of the other
activities of the museum.

Now with the finished restoration of Laguna Gloria there is more optimism
about a permanent downtown location for AMOA.

"I think the mistake that we made in 1985 is that we did not start
building immediately," said Lawrence Miller who was the director
of AMOA from 1974-1990.

"If we had gotten the city to let us go ahead with construction
even though we didn't know what the final design was going to be. We would
have had a museum."

Many Austinites remember when the plans for a permanent downtown location
fell through.

"Of course everyone is disappointed that we don't have a museum
yet," said Michael Barnes, art critic for the Austin American-Statesman."But
these things do take time they don't happen over night."

The result of the roller coaster ride has created skepticism among many
Austinites. And then the economic downturn left AMOA with two projects
-- restoring LaGuna Gloria and building a new downtown location. AMOA
decided to halt the downtown project and prove to the community that it
could restore LaGuna Gloria.

"What we decided to do was to start with the smaller one first,"
said Dana Friis-Hansen. "To prove to the community that we could
succeed with a project that returns to the public our spectacular historic
property to all its splendor."

Michael Barnes said he thinks the restoration will change the public's
attitude.

"I don't think anyone lost faith in the museum altogether,"
said Barnes. "They still continue wonderful programs. The school
is great. Dana Friis-Hansen is putting on wonderful show's -- high quality
shows -- downtown."

Laguna Gloria was never intended to be the place where Austin's art collection
hung. Most people would agree that a new downtown museum is still needed.

"So what we're doing is emphasizing the possibilities of learning
about art and learning about culture and how this art relates to people's
lives," said Friis-Hansen. "So that's what we're focusing on
while the board and the staff does strategic planning to plot and plan
a course of action that can be realized."

Despite the unanswered questions of when a more permanent museum will
be built downtown, there is new ground being broken with the restoration
of Laguna Gloria.

"It feels so good to get this done," said Judith Sims, art
school director.